Tenth Island

Tenth Island
(Roobala mangana)

Nickname: Barrenjoey
Tenth Island (Roobala mangana) Location of Tenth Island off the coast of Tasmania
Geography
Location	Bass Strait
Coordinates	40°56′S 146°59′E
Archipelago	Waterhouse Island Group
Area	900 m^2 (9,700 sq ft)
Administration
Australia
State	Tasmania
Demographics
Population	uninhabited

The Tenth Island, sometimes called Barrenjoey, part of the Waterhouse Island Group, is a 900-square-metre (9,700 sq ft) uninhabited granite islet and nature reserve, situated in Bass Strait, lying close to the north-eastern coast of Tasmania, Australia. The islet has no vegetation and much of it is wave-washed in winter storms.^[1] The Aboriginal name for the island is recorded as Roobala mangana.^[2]

Other islands in the Waterhouse Group include Ninth, Maclean, Waterhouse, Little Waterhouse, Baynes, St Helens, Foster, Swan, Little Swan, Cygnet and Paddys islands and Bird Rock and George Rocks islets.^[1]

Fauna and marine life

The island is important as a breeding site for Australian fur seals.

The island is home to a significant breeding colony of Australian fur seals, with up to 400 pups born each year, though many drown in storms. black-faced cormorants also breed on the island and little penguins roost there.^[1][3]

In the waters surrounding Tenth Island, Therese Cartwright, aged 35 years and a mother of five children, was killed as a result of a human shark attack fatality on 5 June 1993 when a reportedly 5-metre (16 ft) long great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) attacked Cartwright while she was scuba diving at the seal colony.^[4][5]

See also

• List of islands of Tasmania

References

1. Brothers, Nigel; Pemberton, David; Pryor, Helen; & Halley, Vanessa. (2001). Tasmania’s Offshore Islands: seabirds and other natural features. Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery: Hobart. ISBN 0-7246-4816-X
2. Milligan, Joseph (1858). "On the dialects and languages of the Aboriginal Tribes of Tasmania, and on their manners and customs" (PDF). Papers of the Royal Society of Tasmania: 270.
3. "Small Bass Strait Island Reserves. Draft Management Plan". Department of Primary Industries,Water and Environment. Tasmanian Government. October 2000. Retrieved 4 February 2012.
4. World Shark Attack Database: Fatal Shark Attack, Cartwright Archived 22 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine
5. "Tassie's history of sharks". The Mercury. Hobart. 12 January 2009.